Watch 3 videos to become an AdWords Display Ad Builder Guru
Google AdWords has a tool called ‘Display Ad Builder’. This tool allows you to quickly create image, video, and interactive ads within the AdWords interface. This if very useful if you want to quickly build a variety of banner ads. These ads are only displayed on the content network.
The tool uses ad templates. You can customize the colors, images, and text within the templates to fit your needs. In addition, the Display Ad Builder will build your ad in several sizes from the single template. This is a huge time saver.
Below are some of the more useful videos to get you started with the Display Ad Builder.
Why the Display Ad Builder is Useful
Ignore the fact that the video is called ‘become an expert’. This video really shows some of the reasons you should use display ad builder and some tips for building these ads.
How to Video: Create a Display Builder Ad
This video presents a nice walk through of building an ad using the Display Ad Builder
Seasonal Templates
This is a video of building a St. Patrick’s day template. You don’t need to watch it if you’ve watched the previous video (How to create a display ad builder above). What’s notable about the display ad builder is that they launch a lot of seasonal templates that can be useful to stay relevant to holiday seasons.
Even More Videos
If you would like to see more videos about the Display Ad Builder, Google’s Business channel has ten videos in the Display Ad Builder playlist.
The Counter Argument for Newspapers: Why newspapers should opt out of Google News or Force Rev Share Agreements
It is accepted wisdom within the search marketing community that newspapers should be in Google News and be happy for the downstream traffic. It’s common to see an article about how the newspapers want a rev share with Google, or complain about Google news, and then have the search marketing community rip apart the newspapers as dinosaurs.
There really are a few sides to this argument, and I just want to present the a different side. Please note, this does not mean I agree with everything I’m about to write – it just means I think people should see a few different viewpoints before coming to a conclusion.
Why Google News Works
Why do you go to Google news instead of a newspaper directly? The answer is simple: aggregators will show you a variety of information and then you can choose what you wish to read.
Google wants authority content in Google news such as New York Times, Washington Post, CNet, etc so that their news aggregation is complete. Imagine a Google news with the top 50 papers missing. The service would not be nearly as good and they would lose users. Therefore, Google needs completeness in their results to please users.
Examining Scenarios:
Let’s look at a few different scenarios and how the results could play out:
Scenario: Top 50 newspapers pull their feeds from Google News
What would happen if the top 50 newspapers and authority review sites excluded Google news from including their content? While many people like to say bloggers make the news, it’s not totally true. Many bloggers comment on the news and then link back to an authority newspaper for the actual results. I love bloggers; however, I do not want to see the true investigative journalist die. The consequences of losing the group of trained reporters will be larger than most imagine.
Google news is still free; however, the completeness of their coverage will suffer. Therefore, you would end up with three types of users:
- Those who go to the newspaper site directly
- Those who will use another aggregator
- Those who will use Google news because it’s free
From a newspapers perspective, Group 1 has the highest monetization value. That group might actually buy a subscription. The newspapers still need to reach group 2 in a different manner. Group 3 is a tough group to monetize as free has it’s own value and this group may never pay for anything. This would not be a group of users the newspapers should worry about at present.
What if the top 50 newspapers pull their feeds from all news aggregators?
The top newspapers would have a harder time getting newer users. The results of such an action would be huge competition between the newspapers to bring users to their websites using other advertising means. This additional advertising costs will offset any subscription gains.
In addition, all the newspapers will have to trust each other. If just one or two broke from the group and offered their services to the news aggregators, the others would have to follow suit. This is a slippery slope that I don’t think has any chance of working.
Yahoo Newspaper Consortium agrees to only syndicate their news to Yahoo News
Yahoo has an agreement with a significant number of newspapers that covers quite an array of services. Let’s forget the spread of services and create our own scenario. What if the top 50 newspapers only allowed their results to be shown in Yahoo News, and in return Yahoo either paid the newspapers or did some sort of revenue split with them. What would happen?
- Yahoo news would become the authority news aggregator
- Group 1 will split into those who switch to Yahoo news and those who access the newspaper site directly
- Most of Group 2 will migrate to Yahoo news
- The freebie group 3 will split into those who use Yahoo news (assuming it’s still free) and continuing to stay with Google news
This is an interesting scenario. It seems there are many winners here (except other news aggregators). If the newspapers could get to this point, then they could force other news aggregators into rev share or licensing deals so that the other aggregators could keep up with Yahoo.
An alternate scenario would be the newspapers syndicate their news to only a paid news aggregator, what would happen then?
- Paid aggregator would become the authority news aggregator, but will not become the default news source as it will be paid
- Group 1 will split into those who pay the newspaper vs pay the aggregator
- Group 2 will split into those using a paid vs free aggregator
- This group will continue to use Google news
Which is the best scenario?
The downstream traffic that a news aggregator receives from news aggregators is tremendous. It’s not a traffic source that many newspapers would be willing to lose. However, if they could get paid for their content by the aggregator and still receive the traffic, don’t they now live in the best of both worlds.
I think the Yahoo (and I just used Yahoo as an example, it could be any of the news aggregators, including Google) licensing deal could be very interesting for newspapers. It will lead to a traffic loss for sometime as Yahoo would have to create an advertising campaign to let people know of the Yahoo news benefit, users have to switch their news aggregators over time, etc. However, after the short term losses, the long term gains could be a more sustainable model for the newspapers.
I do believe the newspapers need to change their business models somewhat. However, while the business model is changing – I do not want to see a loss of solid news coverage.
The newspapers can achieve some of these other models; but they really need to work together first. That might be the trickiest part of the entire equation.
Hello Denver. The AdWords Seminars for Success are coming to the Mile High City
The AdWords Seminar for Success series is stopping in Denver, Colorado.
When: August 4th & 5th
Where: Doubletree Hotel Denver
3203 Quebec St
Denver, CO 80207
The AdWords Seminar Curriculum has been completely revamped based upon feedback from previous attendees. We’re now offering a two day seminar. Each day is optional; however, we’re offering a discount to those attending both days.
Feel free to contact us if you have any questions.
Before you read the new curriculum, don’t forget the fun goodies you also get for attending:
- $100 AdWords Credit ($50 if you register for a single day) **Must Register 7 Days in Advance
- 2 USB Thumb Drives with Presentation Materials (1 for each day)
- Other Google Goodies
| AdWords Seminar 301: Advanced Account Optimization | |
| Morning Session | Afternoon Session |
| Psychology of Search
Best Practices for PPC Success
Advanced Optimization Techniques
Open Q&A |
Quality Score Demystified
Beyond Text - Multimedia Ads
Content Network Deep Dive
Advanced Geographic Targeting
AdWords Editor: Quick and Easy Account Changes
Google Analytics Implementation Open Q&A |
| **Bonus Presentation: Marketing in a Down Economy | |
Brad - GREAT JOB! you managed multiple experience levels beautifully. I learned a lot. Already seeing better results from my Adwords campaigns. I’m sure I’ll attend another session.
Steve Hodgdon
The Google Adwords seminar by Brad Geddes was the most informative and enlightening one I have ever attended. The day flew by and the information gleaned was more than most two-day sessions I have attended.
Jeff Cunningham
Cunninghamn Gas Products
Curriculum Day 2
| AdWords Seminar 302: Advanced Conversion Optimization | |
| Morning Session | Afternoon Session |
Setting Profitable Business Goals Putting Your Ad Dollars to Work
Learn How to Track Conversions
Exploring ROI and Profit
Effective Bidding Strategies
My Client Center Successful Account Organization
|
Find Effective Messages through Split Testing
Be More Productive Using AdWords Reports
Google Analytics Reporting
Click Quality and Reporting Even More Tools for Effective Research
Resources Open Q&A |
| **Bonus Presentation: Actionable Items: Step-by-Step: How to Maximize Results for Your Limited Time | |
I attended your “Google Adwords Seminar for Success” sessions in Austin earlier this week. I just wanted to say I really appreciated the content you offered. Your material was well balanced. I was fearful that because my company is not a product-selling company that we would not benefit from your information. That couldn’t have been further from the truth. Your seminar validated to me that the direction we have taken so far is appropriate. It is good to see and hear from an expert that we have made good decisions about our Adwords strategy. Your information and tips have given me new things to think about and to use when looking for new keywords to use, and as well to examine our existing keyword performance.
Stu Roberts
Director of Information Technology
Nelson Architectural Engineers, Inc.
Investigative Engineering & Forensic Technology
Brad, great job with the seminar. It was taught well and at a good learning pace. You handled the array of questions from simple to hard with great explanations and analogies. I will probably be calling you for some personal phone consultations for my larger ppc clients.
All the best!
Tony Mandarich
I’m an affiliate and this type of training is essential and you guys delivered the best quality in content I’ve even seen about the subject of adwords. I left the seminar feeling more confident about this interface, but I sure would have been glad to pay extra for access to recorded video sessions.
Maybe that’s something you guys could
offer soon? 
Thanks very much.
Charlie Perez.
Brad is a genius–and I don’t say that about a lot of people. He knows Google adwords inside and out. I was thoroughly impressed by his presentation.
-Anon
I attended this conference in order to learn the latest Adwords developments, and in this respect, I found it to be most useful. We are using Adwords tools daily, so know more about them than the average user. Still, it is useful from time to time to take a step back and listen to an expert who is obviously plugged into the latest, as well as upcoming, developments.
Brad is an exceptional speaker, offers insightful views about marketing theory, and is a technical master. Aside from that he demonstrates during his presentations a willingness to roll up his sleeves and delve into the nuts and bolts of how to manage Adwords to improve ROAS for clients.
Chris Lude
Denver-PPC.com
Beginners Guide To Creating Mobile AdWords Campaigns
My latest Search Engine Land column is out entitled: Beginners Guide To Creating Mobile AdWords Campaigns.
The article walks through:
- Reaching users on iPhones, Blackberry Storms, or phones will full internet browsers
- Reaching users who are using a phone without a full internet browser, such as a Blackberry Curve or Razor
- How to create a mobile website
- Previewing mobile results
- Conversion tracking
If you are running mobile campaigns, or thinking about testing a mobile PPC campaign, the article is a nice primer to get you started.
Enjoy Beginners Guide To Creating Mobile AdWords Campaigns.
Privacy or Convenience? Which path will you take with Firefox and Google AdWords?
The new version of Firefox 3.5 contains a program that can give away your location to a website. Don’t worry, you can disable this setting. The marketer in me gets excited about this technology. The privacy advocate in me shutters.
While I don’t mind my information being used in aggregate, IP addresses are not considered personal information. Therefore, a website can easily collect actual location, IP address, and any information you enter into forms. Now, on an eCommerce site, this doesn’t matter too much as you are already giving your credit card billing information. However, on a site where you normally just give something like an email address, a good marketer might use this service to automatically put your email into a specific location and send you targeted ads. Having access to data is one thing, being able to use it is quite another.
Firefox 3.5 is shipping with a new feature called Geode. This feature used Loki technology to determine the user’s location. The way Loki works is it maps Wi-Fi signals (therefore, if you are on dial-up or a wired connection, the feature will not work, and the geo-location presumably will fall back on standard Google location services (that’s a guess, I can’t find process documentation on that instance). In addition, it appears at present (but this is subject to change) that each site that uses location aware services (API Info) will have to ask permission before looking up your location. If you want to disable this feature permanently, How-To Geek has a nice write-up about the plug-in and disabling the feature in RC 3.5.
However, while Loki is the technology used, what actually happens is your data is sent to Google Location Services where Google will store:
- your computer’s IP address,
- information about the nearby wireless access points, and
- a random client identifier, which is assigned by Google, that expires every 2 weeks
That’s what’s listed is stored, but if you are logged into a Google account, they could also associate your entire Google account with a location every time a new site asks for your location.
Seeing Geode in Action
If you visit, http://3liz.org/geolocation/ the new Firefox will popup an info bat at the top of the browser:
Here you have the option of sharing location or not to share. If you do not choose ‘remember this for this site’, the next time you visit the site (or refresh the page) you will have to choose to share the location on that same site again.
The resulting page will attempt to guess your location:
(Click to see full view).
The exact same location is shown for me as I see with Google Latitude from my house. Now, I must live in a strange area as Google latitude (and Geode) seem to have large error margins (they often place me more than a mile from my actual location). However, when I venture more than a few miles from my house, the accuracy increases significantly. This seems strange to me as I live inside the Washington DC beltway, an urban area with so many cell towers and wireless signals that this service should be as accurate here as anywhere in the US. However, for whatever reasons, its not that accurate at all time.
I also tried this at the airport, and the service showed me at the airport in the correct terminal. So, there are times it’s eerily accurate.
What does this mean to marketers?
According to w3Schools, Firefox is up to 47% marketing share. w3Schools does not break out Firefox version 2 vs 3 in their stats. So it is difficult to see how quickly individuals upgrade to new versions of Firefox.
If Loki is really accurate to 10-20 meters (I’ve heard that’s for urban areas and it’s less accurate in rural areas, accuracy is subject to wi-fi data points), then its much more accurate than today’s geo-location features that often rely on host provider to IP mapping.
Unofficially, I hear the Yahoo elves whisper they are 90% accurate at a city level, and I hear the Google one’s whisper around 85% at that level. At the state level they are much more accurate, and everyone is exceptionally close to 100% at the country level.
Most campaigns find success with location targeting at the city level, but the success starts to diminish significantly when you move to smaller than a city level (such as a neighborhood, or radius targeting).
If consumers opt to allow the search engines to see their location (presumably because you could see some nicely tailor search results if your actual location was known, along with the engines already know a lot about you, so how much does location actually matter?), then marketers could once again start using very small targeting areas to reach consumers in very specific areas.
However, what I can’t find the answer to is if Google will always have your location data, or be able to use it, from other website’s you may have visited. If you visit a site where a unique identifier is used, and that identifier is set by Google (Because Firefox is using Google location services), can Google just use the information without even asking?
The Consumer’s Path?
Personally, I’ll try out some location services and see how much it creeps me out compared to gives me better results. I’m not sure which way I’ll fall yet. The marketer in me says:
- the better the results (including ads) the consumers see
- the more they like ads and click on them
- the better the targeting becomes in reaching a consumer
- and consumer’s don’t become blind to ads
- and it saves the consumer time
Consumers like relevant ads. If an ad is relevant to the consumer, consumers will click and buy. Relevant ads save the consumers time in trying to find the correct service or product. Relevant ads are a win-win for both consumers and marketers.
However, many countries place a high value on privacy. When a benefit it high enough, consumers will give up private information
- an email address for a free download
- personal information for a credit card application to receive 10% off a purchase
- letting a grocery store know every single thing you buy so that you get a small percentage off of some items
What is the tradeoff for location based information? Only time will tell how the new location services will affect marketing; however, I do know they will have an effect, I just don’t know how positive or negative it will be.
If nothing else, after a few years, no one will care and will consider it part of daily life. Remember when GMail launched and everyone was worried about Google reading their email? Google did not change anything. They still how ads based upon an email’s content. However, GMail is one of the fastest growing email clients today. After a few years, it becomes part of live and the privacy concerns fade away.
links for 2009-06-19
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This is a must read report if you do any type of image or banner advertising. On the page, there is a link to the report (it's a PDF file).
Nice Video on Google Product Search (Similar to Google Base)
If you want to learn more about how to get your products into Google Base and the Google product search engine, this is a nice intro video to learn more about those two Google services.
links for 2009-06-17
links for 2009-06-16
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Nice article on marketing in a recession by the Google retail team.
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Matt responds to the nofollow controversy with a nice post on PR sculpting.
The Advanced AdWords Seminars are coming to Minneapolis
The AdWords Seminar for Success series is stopping in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
When: July 16th & 17th (Thursday & Friday)
Where: Doubletree Hotel Minneapolis-Park Place
1500 Park Place Blvd
Minneapolis, MN 55416
The AdWords Seminar Curriculum has been completely revamped based upon feedback from previous attendees. We’re now offering a two day seminar. Each day is optional; however, we’re offering a discount to those attending both days.
Feel free to contact us if you have any questions.
Before you read the new curriculum, don’t forget the fun goodies you also get for attending:
- $100 AdWords Credit ($50 if you register for a single day) **Must Register 7 Days in Advance
- 2 USB Thumb Drives with Presentation Materials (1 for each day)
- Other Google Goodies
| AdWords Seminar 301: Advanced Account Optimization | |
| Morning Session | Afternoon Session |
| Psychology of Search
Best Practices for PPC Success
Advanced Optimization Techniques
Open Q&A |
Quality Score Demystified
Beyond Text - Multimedia Ads
Content Network Deep Dive
Advanced Geographic Targeting
AdWords Editor: Quick and Easy Account Changes
Google Analytics Implementation Open Q&A |
| **Bonus Presentation: Marketing in a Down Economy | |
Brad - GREAT JOB! you managed multiple experience levels beautifully. I learned a lot. Already seeing better results from my Adwords campaigns. I’m sure I’ll attend another session.
Steve Hodgdon
The Google Adwords seminar by Brad Geddes was the most informative and enlightening one I have ever attended. The day flew by and the information gleaned was more than most two-day sessions I have attended.
Jeff Cunningham
Cunninghamn Gas Products
Curriculum Day 2
| AdWords Seminar 302: Advanced Conversion Optimization | |
| Morning Session | Afternoon Session |
Setting Profitable Business Goals Putting Your Ad Dollars to Work
Learn How to Track Conversions
Exploring ROI and Profit
Effective Bidding Strategies
My Client Center Successful Account Organization
|
Find Effective Messages through Split Testing
Be More Productive Using AdWords Reports
Google Analytics Reporting
Click Quality and Reporting Even More Tools for Effective Research
Resources Open Q&A |
| **Bonus Presentation: Actionable Items: Step-by-Step: How to Maximize Results for Your Limited Time | |
I attended your “Google Adwords Seminar for Success” sessions in Austin earlier this week. I just wanted to say I really appreciated the content you offered. Your material was well balanced. I was fearful that because my company is not a product-selling company that we would not benefit from your information. That couldn’t have been further from the truth. Your seminar validated to me that the direction we have taken so far is appropriate. It is good to see and hear from an expert that we have made good decisions about our Adwords strategy. Your information and tips have given me new things to think about and to use when looking for new keywords to use, and as well to examine our existing keyword performance.
Stu Roberts
Director of Information Technology
Nelson Architectural Engineers, Inc.
Investigative Engineering & Forensic Technology
Brad, great job with the seminar. It was taught well and at a good learning pace. You handled the array of questions from simple to hard with great explanations and analogies. I will probably be calling you for some personal phone consultations for my larger ppc clients.
All the best!
Tony Mandarich
I’m an affiliate and this type of training is essential and you guys delivered the best quality in content I’ve even seen about the subject of adwords. I left the seminar feeling more confident about this interface, but I sure would have been glad to pay extra for access to recorded video sessions.
Maybe that’s something you guys could
offer soon?
Thanks very much.
Charlie Perez.
Brad is a genius–and I don’t say that about a lot of people. He knows Google adwords inside and out. I was thoroughly impressed by his presentation.
-Anon
I attended this conference in order to learn the latest Adwords developments, and in this respect, I found it to be most useful. We are using Adwords tools daily, so know more about them than the average user. Still, it is useful from time to time to take a step back and listen to an expert who is obviously plugged into the latest, as well as upcoming, developments.
Brad is an exceptional speaker, offers insightful views about marketing theory, and is a technical master. Aside from that he demonstrates during his presentations a willingness to roll up his sleeves and delve into the nuts and bolts of how to manage Adwords to improve ROAS for clients.
Chris Lude
Denver-PPC.com
Google AdWords
Seminars for Success
Learn about Google AdWords from experts hand selected by Google.
These seminars will educate advertisers on the creation and management of successful AdWords campaigns.
Upcoming Seminars:
Boston AdWords Seminars June 24th & June 25th
Minneapolis AdWords Seminars July 16th & July 17th
Denver AdWords Seminars August 4th & 5th
Learn More about the Seminars:
Seminar Information
Official Google Seminar Page
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Brad Geddes
Leslie Clark
Other Memberships
